Donald Trump and South Africa’s president have been having a bit of a joust in the media over the last week or so.
This all started after the United States boycotted the G20 summit that was hosted in South Africa.
Trump has since announced that he is banning South Africa from next year’s summit, a decision made due to the country's alleged human rights violations.
The first part of this little joust got started last week when the United States announced it was not attending the South Africa summit.
Trump stated, "It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa. Afrikaners (People who are descended from Dutch settlers, and also French and German immigrants) are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated.”
He continued, "No U.S. Government Official will attend as long as these Human Rights abuses continue. I look forward to hosting the 2026 G20 in Miami, Florida!"
This started a back-and-forth between the two nations, and it would only get worse.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa grabbed some headlines during the summit when he announced that the Trump administration had contacted him about potentially attending, doing so at the last second.
He stated, “The United States is a member of the G20, they are an original member of the G20, so they have the right to be here. And all we are seeking to do is looking at the practicalities … for them to participate.”
That led to a response from the White House, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt responding, "The United States is not participating in official talks at the G20 in South Africa," she said. "I saw the South African president running his mouth a little bit against the United States and the president of the United States earlier today, and that language is not appreciated by the president or his team.”
She continued, "The ambassador or the representative of the embassy in South Africa is simply there to recognize that the United States will be the host of the G20. They are receiving that send-off at the end of the event. They are not there to participate in official talks despite what the South African president is falsely claiming."
Trump continued the feud this week, announcing that he would not be inviting South Africa to next year’s event.
He stated, "To put it more bluntly, they are killing white people and randomly allowing their farms to be taken from them.”
Trump continued, "At my direction, South Africa will NOT be receiving an invitation to the 2026 G-20, which will be hosted in the Great City of Miami, Florida next year."
Other world leaders have never had a problem calling Trump out, so I am curious to see how they react to this announcement. I am not even sure if Trump can ban him from the conference, to be honest. But I am sure the media will be going nuts over this during the next few days, as this is typically a very slow news cycle. Trump just changed all that.
